An Experienced Ethnologist’s Thoughts on Digitalization, Open Access, and Open Data as New Research Assets

During the last two years of Covid pandemic we have seen the issues related to digitalization, Open Access, and Open Data (meaning open access to research results and research data) become more salient. Scientists have been unable to access archives and libraries in person, or to meet colleagues and students in physical meetings in the form of seminars, conferences or congresses. Distance has become the key word. Digital contacts have become the norm that shapes the scientific working day. In this subjectively oriented article, I intend to describe and comment on the new situation scientists have to face. These comments are based on my own background as a scientist since the 1970s. Scientists need to recognize the new opportunities that are offered by the new digital tools. This became particularly important in the conditions of the sudden pandemic outbreak in the early 2020s. What can we, scientists, learn from this development?